BOSTON — Relapses in discipline caught up to the Boston University men’s hockey team.
The Terriers (8-6-1, 4-3-1 Hockey East) racked up 48 penalty minutes in their 4-0 loss to the University of Massachusetts (8-6-2, 2-4-2 HEA).
“We’re finding a way to continue to shoot ourselves in the foot,” BU head coach Jay Pandolfo said postgame.
Freshmen Cole Hutson and Brandon Svoboda were each sent down the tunnel with five-minute majors and game misconducts. Hutson bulldozed UMass freshman forward Daniel Jencko and got called for charging 12 minutes into the first period, and Svoboda cross-checked defenseman Kennedy O’Connor in front of BU goaltender Mathieu Caron at 15:01 in the second.
UMass got on the board early with a 2-on-1 rush. Caron made the initial save on the shot from UMass forward Michael Cameron, but the rebound was directed straight to Ryan Lautenbach, who cashed in on the wide-open net.
Already in a hole, the Terrier penalty kill held their own in the first five minute major. The kill held the Minutemen to 6 shots, and BU ran time off the clock in their own zone with some shorthanded looks.
BU started the second period strong until the call on Svoboda extinguished their momentum.
During the second five-minute kill, the defense broke down. The Terriers held up for the first minute and a half, but then Jencko, who had been checked out by a trainer after the Hutson hit in the first period, fired the puck home past Caron to double the Minutemen’s lead.
UMass defenseman Lucas Ölvestad added insurance in the final minute of the period to bring the Terriers’ deficit to three goals.
“It seemed like we got deflated a little bit there,” Pandolfo said.
BU’s issues carried into the third period. The team was called for too many men on the ice with eight minutes left to go in the game, and once again, the Minutemen made them pay. Kenny Connors ripped the puck into the top corner to seal the Terriers’ fate.
BU ended the game on a 5-on-3 with three men in the penalty box, including a freshman forward Kamil Bendarik game misconduct in the last eight seconds to add another 10 penalty minutes to the score sheet.
The score could have looked a lot different had it not been for five goalie interference calls.
Hutson’s equalizer was taken off the board in the first period after captain Shane Lachance bumped UMass goaltender Michael Hrabel. BU freshman defenseman Sascha Boumedienne’s would-be first collegiate goal suffered the same fate in the third period.
Three UMass goals were waved off for the same reason, including one late in the game on the power play.
“[The referees] just got on a roll, couldn’t stop,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel joked.
Hrabal earned the program’s first-ever shutout of BU.
The UMass goalie managed to smother any looks BU got off the rush, where BU was creating most of its best chances at getting on the scoreboard. The Terriers’ offense was strong in the first half of the game, but Hrabal prevented them from capitalizing until the Terriers started to falter in the latter stages of the game as the constant penalty kills started to catch up to them.
“You have a lot of guys getting worn down killing penalties that we rely on to create offense and it’s just not a good recipe to win hockey games,” Pandolfo said.
BU will face UMass again on Wednesday in Amherst at 7 p.m.
Hard to believe how inconsistent this group is. Losing Puck battles , turnovers all over the ice, an unwillingness to match physical play , and stupid retaliatory penalties led to this unmitigated disaster for the terriers tonite vs UMASS. Losing cole Hudson, their key playmaker on the PP was huge in the first period as well as taking 2 major penalties leading to 2 goals late in the second period was pretty much the story. Offensively little did the terriers have to offer. Some breakout opportunities but bad finishing passes and constant turnovers in mid ice made this games frustrating to watch. BU better learn to have more discipline or they will just be mediocre the rest of the way. Either the coaching is at fault or the players have refused to clean up their act is going on here or maybe the quality of the players is suspect. It’s probably a combination of all three IMO.
BU has given up 51 goals. Good for 15th worst in college hockey. That’s 15th worst out of 64 D1 programs.
For context, we’ve scored 52 goals, BC 49. Maine 60.
Goals against: BU 51. BC: 28. Maine 24.
Our PK is 71.7%. Good for 6th worst in college hockey. Maine’s is 86.8%. BC’s is, get this, 100%. BC has not given up a PP goal all season. We’ve given up 17.
Our defense S-T-I-N-K-S. Like might be the worst in modern BU history.
Stats don’t always tell the story. This season, they do.
Our defense is crap.
Over the last few years we have been told we want to get bigger and harder to play against. This years team is smaller and easy to play against.
Just looking at the three players off the portal vs three guys we have lost in the portal this years numbers
Guys is 4-15-19 vs guys out 13-27-40. These are big numbers for a team that has trouble scoring
#44’s defensive liabilities far outweigh his offensive assets. I agree with Mike; this whole defensive group is subpar
Time for some roster moves. This squad needs a drastic wake up call. The standard is not being respected.
We have been told that the team needs to get bigger and harder to play against.
This years team is smaller and easy to play against.
We have had a turn over of three players in the portal and the players numbers are very different.
These are numbers are just for this season
The three players in combine for 4-15-19 vs the three who left are 13-27-40
I have said before and I will say it again. No defense no offense
3rd in the country in penalty minutes (that’s just 4 minutes behind #1) and, as stated above, 6th worst penalty kill. Accountability for these numbers will happen in the form of hard work or losses. Your choice boys.
The good news is, this team can beat anyone on any night. There don’t seem to be any juggernauts (at least at this point) in college hockey. The bad news is, I don’t think we get fixed this season. All signs point to a team that puts it together from time-to-time but doesn’t play consistent enough to make a real run in the tournaments.
The coaches have tried everything they can (for the system they want to play) and it’s just not getting through to this group.
They could act like soccer coaches and change their system – like when a new soccer manager takes over a team leaking goals and sets them up to play from the net out until the rot is stopped – but Jay has shown he prefers to play from the forwards back. And, in all honesty, there is enough (team) talent to play like Jay likes to play but the commitment to defensive responsibilities just isn’t there.
Personally, I don’t think the D corps is at a Top 10 level (part of that is on the coaches and roster building) so the rest of the team has to commit to being a sound defensive team to cover up for it. Since we don’t seem to be committing to that, the defense looks even worse and the goaltenders need to be perfect every night (which is impossible for our two above average but not elite goaltenders).
So, if you’re asking me who holds most of the blame pie? It’s the captains, upperclassmen, and players overall. I’m not saying any of them are bad people or don’t care. I’m mostly saying that when the BU program is at its best and when it has championship-contending teams, the players hold each other responsible for their play.
The coaches are in a tough spot because they can’t bench anybody due to a lack of any real depth (again, that’s on them for roster construction). But the continued lack of awareness on the ice, infuriating penalty taking, and not putting in the required defensive effort for 60 minutes is ultimately on the players.
One of the players wearing a letter on his sweater (not the letter C) is the biggest offenders.
Let me ask the group this. Do these numbers scream “leader”?
14 Games
2 G
3 A
5 PTS
-5 (Team Worst)
33 Penalty Minutes (Team 2nd Worst)
And you’re not going to believe this…1 Blocked Shot all season. ONE!
If they stripped that player of the A at the semester break and gave it to Matt Copponi (a player who has no history with the team but puts everything on the line every night), maybe it would send a message.
For reference:
Copponi
15 Games
4 G
9 A
13 PTS
+11 (Team Best)
4 Penalty Minutes
18 Blocked Shots
But I don’t think it will happen.
Overall, the freshmen, particularly the defensive freshmen, are going through big time growing pains and none of the freshmen hit the ice running like Lane Hutson or Celebrini did their 1st years to help cover up other issues.
That means the upperclassmen have to (as Jay likes to say) “play the right way” each and every game to lead and lead by example. That’s simply not happening. And until it does, we will continue to be a frustrating and underachieving team.
Will they figure some things out over the break? We have to hope so. There’s a good team in there. But unless the players (especially the upperclassmen) start consistently playing the right way and holding each other accountable, then we’ll just see more of the same in the 2nd half. Blips of good games but far too many poor performances.
It’s up to them to turn it around.
Mike
Have to agree with you Mike, the D has been playing very badly. When Jack Parker had his strongest teams the defense was always outstanding. Check out 2009 . Grber, Cohen, shattenkurk, strait, Gilroy ditto in the 90s. Brennan, Linna, o sullivan von steffanelli, ect. This year it’s bad and cole Hudson is the biggest disappointment. On the first UMASS Goal he rushes up the ice gains the zone with several options to pass, waits to long, gives it up and UMASS is away on a 2 on 1 and scores on a rebound with cole caught up ice and nowhere to be found.
Previous comments made some good points & valuable insights. But it certainly does not sound like coming from BU hockey fans…
We lost only one game after winning the Belpot 🏆. When your team is losing, you can still show support with cheers that focus on positive energy, team spirit, and resilience !
Go BU !!!
Ok, Bon Koo just because issues and problems are talked about here doesn’t mean we are not fans. Chances are we are all fans that care about this team very much and want them to be successful
Please express your cheers & love to BU Hockey team as well !
Will be interesting to see what this squad does this week at UMass. Could be very telling.
The defense is often out of position andtoo frequently loses ls opposing forwards in the D Zone. The penalties are usually just plain dumb. Stop trying to be perfect in the offensive zone and put quality shots on goal. That last pass is almost always one too many. Getting points out of Amherst would be a nice way to turn toward next semseter – The real season starts in January and there will be no nights off…
Huge fan of the program. The current iteration is underperforming. Criticism is healthy. Tough love is necessary sometimes. They signed up for this.
Colin, all I want for Christmas is a pair of your rose colored glasses. Anyone heard from Glen? TK out
“There don’t seem to be any juggernauts” – have you looked up the street? they might have lost a few games but BC is a juggernaut. check out the beautiful tic-tac- toe play they made on their 3d goal last night. gorgeous play. we don’t have any players or lines that come close to that. all 12 forwards are interchangeably mediocre. and the d corps? are you kidding? compare this d corps to the won we had in 2009. men vs boys
and Bon Koo – yea yea yea – hip hip hooray – cheerio, BU. How’s that BK? stop the the blind cheering unless of course you are Colin in disguise in which case you have earned the right to wear the rose colored glasses